OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Standing at the lectern, Mindy Corporon calmly spoke about love in the face of hatred, describing how two people so central to her life - her father and her son - were shot to death by a gunman who police say is a white supremacist bent on violence. Her voice steady, she described arriving Sunday afternoon moments after the attacker, whom police identified as Frazier Glenn Cross, opened fire in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Center here, a shooting rampage that took the lives of three people, including a woman outside a nearby Jewish senior center.

Your article (Jan. 29), "Blind Couple See Only Good . . ." was most uplifting, and some such program should be encouraged in all prisons to restore self-esteem among inmates and at the same time help the handicapped. I was disappointed that, whereas you mentioned the National Library Service and the Library of Congress, you did not mention Recording for the Blind, which is a national organization with 29 studios across the country, including Los Angeles (since 1951), Santa Barbara, Palo Alto and Pomona in California.

What makes old violins crafted by members of the Stradivari family so much better than violins produced today? Nothing, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In a musical version of the classic Coke versus Pepsi taste tests, scientists teamed up with experts who make, play and sell violins to see whether there's any substance to the widespread belief that old violins are superior to newer models. Just as with soda, the researchers discovered that highly accomplished violin soloists couldn't tell the difference between old and new instruments.

Chris Willman's review of "Tommy" (" 'The Who's Tommy': Is Wizardry Enough?" May 12) was correct in one sense: The producers did miscast the title character: The only "deaf, dumb and blind kid" in the audience was Willman. P.S. Chris, you watch too much MTV. WILLIAM MURPHY SWAIN Orange

The last thing Ron Martinez expected to find at the beach Tuesday was a slimy sea slug, which oozed through his fingers. It was an eerie sensation he had never experienced, even before he became blind. "It feels kind of gross, actually," said Martinez, one of 10 students from the Orange County Braille Institute who explored the tide pools at Dana Point. It was a day for the senses as students followed interpretive guides from the Orange County Marine Institute. What the students could not see they could hear and smell and touch: the seaweed drying in the sun, waves crashing, sea creatures crawling over palms.

Joel M. Deutsch's essay reveals perhaps as narrow an outlook as he condemns in the woman who rejects him because of his vision problem ("Love Through a Fractured Lens," Dec. 10). He initially sizes up his blind date approvingly, commenting specifically on her "form-fitting jeans and sweater." I wonder what sort of woman his personals ad had targeted (petite, pretty, physically fit?), or whether, in fielding responses to that ad, he seriously considered dating a heavy woman, a disabled woman or a woman who struggles with any kind of physical imperfection--as he struggles with his. Before Deutsch accuses his date of perhaps being a "monstrous narcissist," he may want to take a long, hard look at his own dreams, desires and expectations.

Every Friday, the young women gather at the blind man's home in a fading district of a sleepy city once famous for its poets and wine. They unpack vessels of wood, string and stretched hides. They cradle them in their arms. And as the afternoon wears on, they fill the alleyways with song. My Bahar, my daughter, wake up! Put on a sweet smile and stir emotions. The song is an old one, a bittersweet melody of grief and hope about a girl, Bahar, whose name is synonymous in Persian with the season of spring.

Seymour B. Pearlman, 74, a longtime Los Angeles attorney and co-founder with his wife of Therapeutic Living Centers for the Blind. The organization was founded in 1975 to provide housing, education and lifetime care for the developmentally disabled blind. His efforts led to the founding of homes and education centers throughout the San Fernando Valley. In Burbank on May 28 of a blood ailment.

It is with a degree of cynicism that I write this letter. On Nov. 16, a picture of poor Ivan Boesky appeared in the business section. Hollywood buffs will immediately notice that his appearance bears some resemblance to the late great yachtsman and movie star, Sterling Hayden. Please note that clutched in the prison-hardened left hand is a pair of yachting deck shoes and jeans. In the right hand appears to be a soft bag, the type sailors use for weekend yachting. Prison has indeed changed Mr. Boesky.

Re "The quest for diversity," Editorial, March 28 Your editorial on Proposition 209 and diversity at California's public universities is unclear and patronizing. It is unclear in endorsing as the benchmark of "meaningful racial diversity" the University of California's "diversity goals" - goals that the university has not itself enunciated. One can try and divine what the university's goals are, but with little success. Apparently, exceeding the pre-Proposition 209 minority enrollment (except for African American students at Berkeley and UCLA)

The gig: Ramona Pierson, 51, is chief executive of Declara, a start-up based in Palo Alto that has developed a way for companies to use sophisticated techniques and advanced Internet search to create workplace tools. In two years, it has grown to 57 employees, and the company has attracted $5 million in funding from such notable investors as Peter Thiel. The journey: As impressive as the company's start has been, it's Pierson's back story that is particularly special.

A woman who lost her hands, eyesight and parts of her face when she was mauled by a friend's chimpanzee renewed a bid to seek $150 million in damages from the state of Connecticut, asking lawmakers Friday to accept her argument that the state had a duty to seize the allegedly dangerous animal. The state had long known of and even investigated Travis the television-acting chimpanzee in North Stamford, Conn., officials said. But the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection never sought to remove Travis from Sandra Herold's home before he attacked Charla Nash in 2009.

The coaches took their teams from almost full to completely full on "The Voice" on Tuesday. "I truly believe that we all have winners on our team," Adam Levine said magnanimously as the final night of blinds kicked off. Later, though, he was less generous. "Team Adam is the best team," he said. "Duh. " Levine and fellow coaches Blake Shelton, Usher and Shakira all added solid talent to their rosters Tuesday. PHOTOS: Concerts by The Times Shelton filled the final spot on his team with Kaleigh Glanton, a 20-year-old classical guitarist, singer and CrossFit enthusiast from Wichita, Kan., who turned all four chairs with her take on "Have You Seen the Rain?"

A passenger who was on the Metro Red Line train that passed over a blind man moments after he fell off a platform Thursday described having a "sick feeling" as riders realized what had happened. The man -- an unidentified 47-year-old Los Angeles resident who survived the incident mostly unharmed -- had been using a cane to feel his way toward the edge of Metro's Wilshire/Vermont subway platform when he went too far and tumbled over. When the eastbound Red Line train slowed to a stop, the man was trapped underneath, said Paul Gonzales, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

This post has been updated A blind man who fell off the edge of a subway platform Thursday afternoon and into the path of an oncoming Metro train survived the accident mostly unharmed, officials said. "It really is a miracle," Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeman Paul Gonzales told The Times. "It's something you only see on TV. " The man, an unidentified 47-year-old Los Angeles resident, had been using a cane to feel his way toward the edge of Metro's Wilshire/Vermont subway platform, Gonzales said. The operator of the incoming Red Line train saw the man and honked to warn him that he was about to reach the edge of the platform, but it was too late: The man fell and tumbled into the track bed as the train approached.

I am so thrilled to see another television show based on the myth that there are only white people in the world ("Suddenly, O.C. Leads the Hip Parade," July 19). Forget the fact that Asians, blacks and Hispanics surf, attend school and work in Orange County. Forget the fact that some cities in Orange County are predominately minority. Instead, write and produce a comforting myth that ensures work for melanin-deprived people. It is chilling how the media shape perception. It is chilling that so many people in the industry are blind to the other hues working and studying right beside them.

I read with interest "Pope Warns Divorced Catholics Who Remarry Not to Take Communion" (April 18), on the Vatican's newest attempt to prevent "notorious" sinners from receiving the sacraments. I'd like to know when the Vatican intends to begin preventing notorious sinners from administering them and when the hierarchy will stop protecting the men who have done so much damage to so many children and families. The church hierarchy does a real disservice to its people and to those priests who keep their vows and serve faithfully and well when it stresses the need for moral perfection among its flock but then turns a blind eye to the evils within its own house.

Want to hear as well as Stevie Wonder or the late Ray Charles? A blindfold not only might help, it could re-wire your brain in the process, a new study suggests. The study , in mice, was the first to show evidence on a cellular level of a phenomenon that has been relatively well chronicled behaviorally - damage to one sense can be compensated with strength in another. And that compensation can happen later in life, when the brain is generally less susceptible to rewiring, the study found.

President Obama's recent speech on government surveillance is dominating the conversation, but he won't be making the key decisions on the future of the National Security Agency's collection of domestic phone data. The statutory provision authorizing these massive sweeps expires June 1, 2015. If Congress simply does nothing, the NSA's domestic spying program will soon come to a screeching halt. The question is whether Americans will seize this opportunity to gain critical perspective on the crisis responses of the George W. Bush years.